Internet Blogs & (Rumors | Facts)?

So, I'm not sure about how I feel about the Illegal Immigration issue. But, I found the following bit of information interesting because it points to the phenomena of internet rumors that seem to gain a life of their own. The fact that this issue/post is what made me start thinking about it isn't important to me.

The interesting part is how things (if they are repeated enough) become "truth".

Here's the bulletin post I got:

ILLEGAL ALIEN "CONTRIBUTIONS" TO THE U.S.
2006 (First Quarter) INS/FBI Statistical Report on Undocumented Immigrants

CRIME

95% of Warrants in LOS ANGELES are for ILLEGAL ALIENS
83% of Warrants for MURDER in Phoenix Arizona are FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS
86% of Warrants for MURDER in Albuquerque New Mexico are for ILLEGAL ALIENS
75% of those on the most wanted list in Los Angeles, Phoenix, Albuquerque are ILLEGAL ALIENS
24.9% OF ALL INMATES in California detention centers are Mexican Nationals here ILLEGALLY
40.1% of all inmates in Arizona detention centers are Mexican Nationals here ILLEGALLY
29% (630,000) Convicted ILLEGAL ALIENS felons fill our state and federal prisons
at the cost of $1.5 Billion Annually
53% Plus of all investigated burglaries reported in California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona
and Texas are perpertrated by ILLEGAL ALIENS
50% Plus of all gang members in Los Angeles are ILLEGAL ALIENS
71% Plus of all apprehended Cars stolden in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and California
were stolen by ILLEGAL ALIENS or "Transport Coyotes"
47% of cited / stopped Drivers in California have NO License, NO Insurance, and NO Registration
for the vehicle of that 47%, over 92% were ILLEGAL ALIENS
63% of cited / stopped Drivers in Arizona have NO License, NO Insurance, and NO Registration for
the vehicle of that 63%, over 97% are ILLEGAL ALIENS
66% of cited / stopped Drivers in New Mexico have NO License, NO Insurance, and NO Registration
for the vehicle Of that 66%, over 98% were ILLEGAL ALIENS

BIRTHS

380,000 Plus "ANCHOR BABIES" were born in the U.S. in 2005 to ILLEGAL ALIEN PARENTS, making 380,000 babies automatically U.S. Citizens.
97.2% of all costs incurred from those births were paid for by American taxpayers.
66% of all births in California are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal whose births were paid by taxpayers

HOUSING

300,000 plus illegal aliens in Los Angeles Country are living in garages.
Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties in the United States are illegal aliens.

TV & RADIO STATIONS

14 out of 31 TV stations in L.C. are Spanish only 16 out of 28 TV stations in Phoenix are Spanish only.
15 out of 24 TV stations in Albuquerque are Spanish only 21 radio stations in Los Angeles are Spanish only.
17 radio stations in Los Angeles are Spanish only 17 radio stations in Albuquerque are Spanish only

SCHOOLS

34% plus of Arizona students in grades 1-12 are illegal aliens and 24% plus are non-English speaking.
39% plus of California students in grades 1-12 are illegal aliens and 42% plus are non-English speaking.
In Los Angeles County, 5.1 million people speak English - 3.9 million speak Spanish.

SOCIAL SERVICES
43% of all Food Stamps issued are to illegal aliens
41% of all Unemployment Checks in the United States are to illegal aliens
58% of all Welfare payments in the United States are issued to illegal aliens
Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking crops but 41% are on welfare

POPULATION
Over 70% of the U.S. annual population growth (and over 90% of CA, FL, and NY) results from immigration

EMPLOYER PROFITS
The estimated profit to U.S. corporations and businesses employing illegal aliens in 2005 was more than 2.36 trillion

TAXES
62% of all "undocumented immigrants" in the U.S. are working for cash and not paying taxes, predominantly illegal aliens are working without a green card
The cost of immigration to the American taxpayer in 1997 (last known calculation by Professor Donald Huddle, Rice University) was a NET (after subtracting taxes immigrants pay), $70 Billion per year.
The lifetime fiscal impact (taxes paid minus services used) for the average illegal alien is $55,000 cost to the American taxpayer in a 5-year span. You personally pay $11,000 every year to illegal aliens.

JOBS (per Center for Immigration Studies - September 2006): Between 2000 and 2005

4.1 million immigrant workers arrived in the U.S., accounting for 86% of the net inrease in the total number of employed persons (16 & older), the highest share ever recorded in the U.S. Of the 4.1 million, between 1.4 and 2.7 million are estimated to be illegal aliens. Also, between 2000 and 2005, the number of young (16 to 34) native-born men employed declined by 1.7 million - at the same time, the number of new male immigrant workers increased by 1.9 millio


I visited the FBI statistics site and didn't find a single thing on this.

I visited the site map at the INS site and couldn't find anything. A "statistics" and "statistics crime" query in their search box produced nothing either.

Then I look over the original post and compare it with some of the results from my google search (exclusively wordpress, blog and bulletin board posts) and see that things have been added on to it and there are misspellings. Click here to see the search results from Google for "2006 (First Quarter) INS/FBI Statistical Report on Undocumented Immigrants". Nothing at all comes up if I add "domain:.gov" to the search.

I dunno. It's just interesting to me, not because I care one way or the other about the immigration issue, but, rather, because it would seem that things can be passed around as the "truth" with nothing but the number of people reposting it to back it up.

Like I said, maybe, somebody has better searching skills than I do and can find the original source for this and I'd really like to see it, just 'cause those are some pretty mind-blowing statistics to me and if true would probably make me lean towards immigration reform / control if they are.

It's interesting to me how we (including me) see what we want and changing one's mind about things is incredibly difficult. I would guess 'cause it's a sort of mini-suicide, in that you are killing a piece of yourself off.

*****

bonus!!

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: trammel
Date: Aug 13, 2007 7:53 PM

hey,

I went through about 9 pages of search results and even visited the INS site to see if I could find the statistical report that this is based on and couldn't find a thing but a bunch of wordpress, blog and bulletin board posts on this.

do you have a link to the original source for this?

-t-

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: XXXX
Date: Aug 13, 2007 4:57 PM


no.

but i can tell you right now that there is a lot of child rape around here because of mexicans.. i think you can fuck a 10 year old in spic land.....

the TV part is true too... 5 channels out of 30 in this part of FL are spic speakings...

its pretty close..

----------------- Original Message -----------------
From: trammel
Date: Aug 13, 2007 8:20 PM

I see.

It's interesting to me...this bulletin...not the specific issue...cause I don't really know where I stand on it.

I self-identify as Mexican-American and am semi-fluent in "spic" myself. Eighth generation actually. Family from Texas and ancestors that fought on the losing side of the civil war. But, that doesn't mean I'm automatically for immigration reform or control.

I dunno. It's interesting to me how things like this can get passed around with nothing more then the fact that it's repeated a bunch of times to back it up.

I'm going to blog about this. Not because I want to get into an argument about immigration (like I said I go back and forth on this one) but, because of the underlying phenomena.

Thank you for making me think.

yrs. trly.,
trammel